Neon Genesis Evangelion Evolution: Part IV
by sentinel28II
Summary: Don't bury me, I'm not dead! Riana, still stuck in Mana Kirishima's body, accompanies Shinji, Rei, Asuka and Yui to a rival, secret project to the Artificial Evolution Lab. What is there is strangely familiar to Riana, and supremely dangerous. There aren't Angels or SEELE in Mana's world...right?
1. Crazy

_**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: EVOLUTION**_

 _ **BOOK IV**_

 _ **An Evangelion Fanfic in Many Parts**_

 _ **By Sentinel 28II (aka Sentinel 28A)**_

* * *

 _AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for the very long hiatus. End of semester, vacation to Anime Central, health issues...all that and everything else. But summer's here, and with it, hopefully, back to this story.  
_

 _WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE: It has been over a month since Riana Arashikaze became the newest pilot of the Evangelion Project, but it has not been an easy road. She possesses little of the natural talent of the other Eva pilots, and is still piloting a preproduction version of the Eva mecha—EVA-03A. She and her mecha lack the ability to generate an AT-Field, leaving her at a huge disadvantage against the Angels._

 _Riana does have one advantage: she seems to have some sort of inherent magic, allowing her to control time. She is unsure of her powers and how to use them, much less how much potential she actually has. Director Gendo Ikari believes she can be used as a weapon, but he is about the only one who believes this, including Riana herself. Nonetheless, she has survived four battles with Angels, and her skill is growing—along with her friendship with Shinji and Rei, and her rivalry with Asuka._

 _After the last battle with Zeruel, Riana was knocked unconscious. She has woken up…but in a different place, in possibly a different time, and in a different body._

* * *

 _Artificial Evolution Lab_

 _Tokyo-3, Japan_

 _12 November 2016_

Doctor Tetsuo Fuchida returned the smile of the three young female technicians that passed him in the hallway. He sighed a little as they went past; to be young again. Truth to tell, he admitted to himself, he always felt a little out of his depth at the Evolution Lab. It was a gathering of some of the smartest, most brilliant people in the world—Fuchida, after all, merely had a single Ph.D., and it was in medicine.

He knocked politely on the director's office door. "Come in," came the muffled reply, and Fuchida entered. He and Director Gendo Ikari exchanged bows, and then Gendo slid the chair back and walked around the desk. "Good morning, Dr. Fuchida."

"Good morning, Director Ikari." He glanced around. "I was hoping Dr. Ikari would be here as well."

"Yui's downstairs, with Dr. Soryu. You know how it is. Girl talk." Gendo winked conspiratorially.

Actually, Fuchida had no idea, but he smiled nonetheless. "I have the reports on Mana Kirishima."

"Ah, excellent. Walk with me, Doctor." Gendo led the way out of the office. "How is she?"

"Physically, she's fine. She sustained a concussion when she fell and struck her head on the side of the bathtub. However, she no longer shows any physical symptoms of the concussion. As you know, she also cut the back of her head when she fell, but we've closed up that wound. I doubt it will even scar. Were it not for the mental symptoms, I would send her home today, but…"

"But for the mental symptoms," Gendo finished.

"Yes, sir." Fuchida consulted his notes, to be sure. "Mana insists she is _not_ Mana, but someone named Riana Arashikaze."

"I admit I'm not a doctor—at least in the medical sense," Gendo said, "but could that be something left over from the concussion?"

"A certain amount of confusion and even amnesia surrounding the event of the concussion itself is not unusual," Fuchida replied, "but this is like something I have never seen. Mana remembers absolutely nothing about her life. When her parents came to see her after she was brought here, she didn't even recognize them. She doesn't know her own birthday. However, she _does_ know everything about this Riana person—birthday, birthplace, parents, etcetera.

"It gets stranger," Fuchida continued. "She knows you. She knows Dr. Ikari. When I asked her about her schoolmates, she instantly named all of them—your son Shinji, Rei Ayanami, Asuka Langley-Soryu, Hiraki Horiaki, all of them. She knows the layout of Tokyo-3."

"Forgive my lack of knowledge," Gendo told Fuchida, "but it sounds if she might have developed some sort of split personality, or has gaps in her knowledge."

"I've never heard of that happening, but I suppose it's possible." Fuchida shrugged. "To be honest, Director Ikari, I feel very much out of my depth here. We did a CT scan on her the night she was brought in. No bleeding in the brain or damage that we can see. We did another last night, and again, nothing. I have no explanation for this. It's possible she might wake up tomorrow and be back to normal. It's possible she may _never_ return to normal. With your permission, I'd like to turn Mana over to Dr. Soryu. Her research may be able to learn the answers that I can't."

"Hmm," Gendo mused. "All right. I'll arrange it…assuming I can find Dr. Soryu." Fuchida nodded but said nothing out of courtesy. It was well known at the lab that Gendo got lost a lot.

* * *

Two floors down and one hallway over, Riana Arashikaze lay in bed, propped against a pillow. She put down the book she had been reading and stared at the ceiling. Something was very wrong, and unlike the dreams she had experienced earlier, this one did not seem to be ending anytime soon.

There was a soft knock at her door, then it opened. She expected to see the kind, middle-aged doctor who had been treating her, or one of the nurses. Instead, it was a taller woman with blond hair, dressed in the ubiquitous labcoat that Riana had seen in this place, but offset with a bright pink blouse and a black skirt that Riana thought was a bit short for a woman of a certain age. She smiled at Riana…but then again, everyone had smiled at her here. Riana was used to cleanliness of NERV, but at no time during her stay there was everyone this kind.

"Hello, Mana," the woman greeted her. "I'm Doctor Kyoko Soryu."

 _God,_ Riana thought in shock, _this has got to be Asuka's mother._ She could see the resemblance: the hair was far more blond, but the eyes had the same shape, as did the face. Riana had never really known what had happened to Asuka's mother, nor even her name, but she knew that Asuka's mother was dead. And yet, just like Shinji's mother, here she was, very much alive.

"Hello, Dr. Soryu." Riana extended a hand. Kyoko went to take it, but tripped and nearly fell. She caught herself on the bed just in time. "Oops!" Kyoko laughed in embarrassment. "Sorry. These floors must have been just mopped." She finally took the hand, gave it one shake, then drew up a chair and sat alongside the bed.

"So what should we talk about, Mana?" Kyoko clasped her hands together.

Riana had given this a lot of thought. It was tempting just to tell this woman, and any other doctors that followed, that she had been delusional and she really was this Mana Kirishima. The problem with that was, she had no idea who Mana was, or what her life was like. In the mirror, in the body, she was Mana. In her mind and soul, she was Riana. So she decided to tell the truth…or at least as much as she could figure out.

"No disrespect, ma'am," Riana began, "but I'm not Mana Kirishima."

"Really?" Kyoko looked surprised. "You look just like her."

"I know. And I don't know why I do. But I'm not, really." At the look on Kyoko's face, Riana shrugged. "Ask me a question about Mana Kirishima. It doesn't matter. I won't know the answer."

"Okay. So who are you, then?"

Riana was sure she was being humored, but there was nothing else to do. "My name is Riana Arashikaze. I was born in Seattle, Washington, in the United States, on September 11, 2001-"

"Oh my." Kyoko's eyes were wide. "What a bad luck day to be born."

Riana's mouth fell open. "Then…you know about Second Impact?"

Kyoko shook her head. "I don't know anything about a Second Impact, but September 11—that was the day those terrorists attacked the United States." At Riana's quizzical look, Kyoko prompted, "You know. September 11? 9/11? Al-Qaeda? I mean, I slept through the whole thing—I was pregnant with Asuka at the time…"

"I'm sorry. I don't know what you're talking about. I've never heard of that."

"I'm sorry too," Kyoko apologized. "I interrupted you. Please, continue. What was Second Impact?"

Riana explained, and Kyoko listened patiently. Riana ended up telling her everything—almost. She decided not to mention the fact that Kyoko Soryu was supposed to be dead, along with Yui Ikari; all she said about Asuka was that they worked and went to school together. When Kyoko asked about Mana Kirishima, Riana told the truth: in her world, Mana did not exist—at least, Riana had never met her or heard of her.

When Riana had finished, Kyoko sat back in her chair; she had been leaning forward the whole time. She tapped her pen against her chin. "So…what do you think?" Riana said, almost desperately, into the silence.  
Kyoko took her time in answering. "You're not crazy."

"I'm glad someone doesn't think I am—"

"I'm not sure what you are." Kyoko got up, took one of Riana's hands in her own cool ones. "Stay here. I'm going to help you as best I can." Then she released the girl and left.

* * *

Yui Ikari did not bother to translate the notes Kyoko had scribbled after she left Riana's room: the other woman was one of the most brilliant women in the world, possessed of an Einstein-level intellect and a photographic memory—for certain things—but penmanship was not one of Dr. Soryu's talents. "Short version," she asked Kyoko from behind her desk. "Is she suffering from a severe concussion?"

"Nope." Kyoko used the English word, another habit of hers. "Not according to the CT scans, and not according to anything I could see."

"Is she insane?"

"Nope."

Yui steepled her hands and leaned forward on her desk. "Is she Mana Kirishima?"

"Yes. And no."

The beginnings of a headache appeared behind Yui's eyes. "That's not an answer."

"I don't have one, Yui. Physically, she's definitely Mana. Everything's there. Blood type is the same, hair, eyes, breast size—really, I don't know why Asuka feels so intimidated by Mana, Asuka is bigger and—"

"Kyoko…"

The elder Soryu smiled mischievously. "Okay, okay." She returned to being more serious, at least as serious as Kyoko could get. "Mentally? You could it put it down to brain damage, or concussion, amnesia, even split personality…but she has come up with an incredibly detailed backstory. From near-extinction-level events, attacks from space—at least I think that's what she meant by 'Angels'—to mecha that she pilots…too much to be a delusion. She's _been_ somewhere, Yui. Where, I don't know."

"You believe her, then? That's she's not Mana but this Riana person?"

Kyoko shrugged. "I don't know what I believe. I've never seen anything like this."

"All right, Doctor. What should we do, then? Holding her here seems counterproductive, if she's healthy." Yui rubbed her temples.

"I think we should let her go home," Kyoko answered. "If it _is_ amnesia, which I doubt, it might trigger recall. If not, at least she's not stuck in a hospital bed. She can go to school, too—she does at least know Asuka, Shinji, and the others. We keep an eye on her, of course."

"Of course." Yui sighed. "All right, I'll let Mana's parents know. It's better than nothing, which is what we have now. If you think of anything, let me know."

"I've got a few ideas." Yui did not like the tone in Kyoko Soryu's voice. While the other woman was not exactly a mad scientist—at least, not any more than anyone else at the Artificial Evolution Lab, which occasionally wasn't saying much—she had some interesting ideas on bioethics sometimes. As in, she didn't believe in them. Luckily, Kyoko tended to be harmless, mostly. "I'll see you later, Yui."

"Thanks again, Kyoko." As the other woman turned to leave, Yui asked, "Oh, have you seen my husband? He's gone missing again, I'm afraid."

"No, I haven't—" The door opened to admit Gendo Ikari, who promptly collided with Kyoko Soryu. Yui leapt out of her chair, but it was too late: both crashed to the floor. "I'm sorry, Dr. Soryu," Gendo said; at least, that's what Yui thought he said, as his face was buried between Kyoko's ample breasts. His head came up after too long a time there. "It was an accident, Yui! Please!"

"Oww." Kyoko rubbed the back of her head. Luckily, the office floor was carpeted.

"Will you two please get untangled?" Yui put down the potted plant. She didn't need any more concussions around the lab.


	2. There For You

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: Since Riana is now inhabiting Mana Kirishima's body in the_ Shinji Ikari Raising Project _universe, I needed to make up some parents for Mana. It is mentioned in the manga that Mana Kirishima's parents are both alive and work at the Artificial Evolution Lab with Shinji's parents and Asuka's mother, but as they are never seen (and never mentioned after one throwaway line), I pretty much had to invent them._

 _Kirishima Residence_

 _Tokyo-3, Japan_

 _12 November 2016_

Riana Arashikaze looked at the stranger in the mirror. "Well," she whispered to her reflection, "whoever you are, Mana Kirishima, at least you're cute."  
She was also neat. Mana's room was well kept, her bed made—not to the almost military precision that the sisters had required of Riana at the convent, but straight. As Riana went through the room, her fingers brushed across rows of books. A great deal of it was schoolbooks, but also manga. Out of curiosity, she took out one of the latter. Riana had struggled with reading kanji, but reading with Mana's eyes, it was as clear as English. She'd already noted that her Japanese was near flawless, with none of the heavy accent she had when speaking as herself. _I guess there's some advantages to this._ Her thoughts, however, were in English and in her own voice—Mana's was a bit higher-pitched than her own.

 _So much to get used to,_ Riana mused. Everything was different. She almost had to learn to walk again, because Mana was shorter and Riana was used to being taller than most people her age. Mana kept herself in good shape, and was obviously something of an athlete. Riana replaced the book on the shelf and took a turn through Mana's closet. The school uniform was familiar, and some of Mana's dresses were very nice and demure; a few others Riana swore she would never wear, no matter whose body she was in, as they ended well above the knees.

"Mana? Mana?"

 _And then there's that._ Riana had never shared a house with parents before.

Mana's parents were both friendly enough. Mr. Kirishima—Ken—was tall for a Japanese man, and handsome. Mrs. Kirishima—Jun—was short and petite, and no great beauty, though far from ugly. Both were scientists at the Artificial Evolution Lab; Ken Kirishima was a bioengineer, while Jun Kirishima was quite literally a brain surgeon. Their confusion over their daughter's condition was painful to watch. Riana hated herself for not being Mana: it was obvious her parents loved their daughter. Not for the first time, Riana was tempted to ram her head into the nearest wall to see if she could induce unconsciousness—maybe then, she'd wake up back in her own body, and Mana in hers. _Assuming, of course, that back in_ that _Tokyo-3, I'm not dead or something. I've never believed in reincarnation, but this sounds off even by Buddhist standards._

After Jun Kirishima's fourth call for her daughter, Riana finally answered, "In here, Mrs. Kirishima." She bit her lip; that would have to really hurt Mana's mother to hear that.

Jun walked into her daughter's room. There was a crestfallen expression on her face. "I'm…" She hesitated. "I'm sorry. I had hoped, perhaps…"

"That the familiar setting would bring back my memories?" Riana sat down on Mana's bed. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Kirishima. There's no memory to bring back."

Jun hugged herself. "I don't believe you, you know. You're my Mana." She was on the verge of tears.

Riana sighed. "I know, Mrs. Kirishima, and I'm more sorry than you could ever know. I want your daughter back as much as you do. I guess I'm occupying her body, and I promise—"

"Give her back." Mrs. Kirishima's voice was small, but then it rose in intensity. "Give her back." Suddenly she was shouting in hysteria. " _Give her back!"_ She lunged at Riana. Riana wasn't sure if it was her reflexes or Mana's, but she was across the bed in a half-second, evading Jun Kirishima's outstretched hands, putting the bed between them. She looked frantically for something that could be used as a weapon, as now she was squarely in a corner of the room. But Jun Kirishima had stopped herself. She fell backwards into a chair at Mana's computer desk. "I'm sorry." The tears began to run down her face. "I'm so sorry."

"What's going on in here?" Ken Kirishima walked in the room. He saw Riana wedged in the corner and his wife weeping in the chair, and understood. He looked at Riana. "Mana, come with me. Jun, please excuse us for a few minutes."

Riana obeyed. She followed Ken out of the house, through the front gate, and out onto the sidewalk in front of the house. NERV—or this Artificial Evolution Lab version of it—evidently paid pretty well. "Follow me," he commanded, and she nodded. He began briskly walking towards a park, and Riana dutifully followed a few paces behind him—traditionally, which she thought respectful. The air was cool, but it was a beautiful day. She could look down the road to Tokyo-3. The terrain was familiar, even the street; Riana was sure she had been here before. The city looked very much the same, except there was no visible damage, and the streets looked well-paved; NERV often overlooked potholes in the side streets to concentrate on repairing only the most necessary areas. Something was still off, and she realized it with a start: _there are no cicadas!_ The pleasant buzzing noise of the insect was absent, replaced by the hum of traffic. _Of course. In this world, Second Impact never happened, so the poles are still where they were, before. No almost perpetual summer in Japan; they still have seasons here._

They reached the park. Ken waited for her to catch up. "Walk with me," he ordered. He did not seem a severe man, but he was obviously under a lot of stress. She dutifully took up position next to him. Ken seemed to hesitate, and set an easier pace. "You said your name was Riana?" he suddenly asked.

"You…you believe me?"

"Mana…ah, Riana. I am a scientist. In the words of Sherlock Holmes, once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." He looked at her. "You have absolutely no memory of anything my daughter would know. You didn't even know who we were, your own—or Mana's—parents. And yet your story of this Second Impact?" She nodded in confirmation. "This Second Impact, is so detailed and said with such conviction, that I must assume that you are indeed this Riana Arashikaze…somehow. I don't claim to understand it, but to get my daughter back, I must try."

"Yes, sir." Riana could not look at him. "As I was telling your wife, I want nothing more than to go back where I came from, and bring your daughter back to you." She chuckled softly. "I suppose you could always hit me with something really solid, and see if that works."

"I considered that, but there's the possibility that it might not work. That, and the police look rather unfavorably about fathers beating their daughters with solid objects." A small smile broke his serious expression. "Riana, the smartest people on the planet are in the Artificial Evolution Lab. We will find a way."

"Thank you, sir."

They walked in silence for a few moments, then he said, "I looked for your parents—Thomas and Clarice Arashikaze."

Riana's heart soared. "Are they—"

"I am sorry," Ken told her. "I could find no record of them. Or your aunt, or grandmother. The simple fact of the matter may be that they do not exist in this plane."

 _I don't belong here._ "Oh," was all Riana said.

Ken Kirishima put his hands on her shoulders. "Riana…you said that, where you came from, your parents are dead."

"Yes, sir. My father died in Second Impact when the Space Needle collapsed in Seattle, and my mother from childbirth and trauma."

"So you never knew your parents."

"No, sir. As you've probably read from those interviews, I was raised in a convent and by my paternal grandmother. And…well, to be honest, she wasn't there much. Not by choice, you understand. The world…my world…is pretty ugly. It's practically post-apocalyptic."

"I see." Ken's smile widened. "Then let me offer you something. As long as you are here, I would be greatly honored if you called me Dad. Mana calls me that, and Jun Mom. It would greatly help us, and at least, if nothing else, we can make your 'stay,' as it were, as pleasurable as possible. And if, for some reason, Mana can never come back…" he swallowed in a moment of fear "…you can be our daughter. Foster parents, if that's more palatable. Let us be the parents you've never had, Riana."

Riana thought about it. It was true: she had no memory of her parents. Only photographs and her grandmother's stories, and what the Mother Superior and Kazuko Bishamon had told her. Certainly Rissa Arashikaze had done her best, but she was still not Riana's parent. _And it would be polite,_ she told herself. _Well, Mana, if I'm going to be borrowing your body, I'm going to be careful with it, and your parents._ She smiled up at Ken. She wondered if it was her smile, or Mana's. "I'd like that…Dad." The word felt good on her lips. Riana had never used it before to a living being.

He hugged her. After a moment, she returned the hug. Peace, Riana decided, felt all right.


	3. Out of Touch

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wish I could apologize more for the glacierlike pace of the story due to lack of updates. It has been a very busy summer, but that's an excuse, not an explanation. I should (hopefully) begin to post more often now. (Of course, I've said that before!) Anyway, enjoy this short chapter to tie you over until the next one…which better not take another month to write._

 _First Municipal Junior High School_

 _Tokyo-3, Japan_

 _13 November 2016_

Since there was no reason for Mana Kirishima not to return to school, return to school she did. Riana wondered if it was either yet another attempt to jog memories that weren't there, or just use her as a guinea pig to see how she would react to the other students there.

Walking to school was no trouble. Riana needed the GPS in her phone to get to the right cross-street, but once she did, the walk was familiar enough. She looked in the distance to find her apartment, and Rei's, but where the dingy apartment block should be, there were only mountains. There was a slight chill in the air, and clouds on the horizon promised rain. Luckily, Jun Kirishima made sure her daughter had an umbrella. After Riana had begun calling Jun "Mom," however unfamiliar the word was to her, Jun noticeably relaxed, though she was careful to avoid any conversation that would bring home the truth that Mana was not, for the time being, Mana.

First Municipal Junior High School was the same old boring building; Riana was sure that Japan had a code that all of its educational facilities had to look the same. As usual, she entered the school, exchanged her shoes for slippers in the cubbyhole, and walked upstairs to Class 2-A. She prepared herself for a shock, and got one immediately.

Standing in the hallway, chatting with Kensuke Aida, was Toji Suzuhara.

" _Toji!"_ Riana shouted. She took two steps towards him, then remembered.

Toji turned to her, puzzled. "No reason ta yell, Kirishima. Geez."

"Hey, Mana." Kensuke smiled at her and gave the slight adjustment to his glasses that was so familiar.

"You…you look good," Riana blurted to Toji.

He grinned back. "Well, thanks, Kirishima. I work out, ya know." He gave her a brief once-over. "You feelin' okay? Misato said that you got hurt."

"Er…yeah. Yeah, I'm feeling okay. Just fell on my head a little. You know." Riana realized she was making a fool of herself, but Toji was alive. Here, at least, she had not killed him. Before she could embarrass herself further, she walked into the classroom.

* * *

It was the same classroom, too. Mostly the same faces, though a few were unfamiliar. Hiraki Horaki was standing at the front of the room, making sure everything was in place for the arrival of the homeroom teacher. Rei Ayanami was standing at her desk, putting her books and lunch away just so. Shinji Ikari and Asuka Langley-Soryu were also at their desks, and Asuka was berating Shinji for something. That brought a smile to Riana's face: some things, at least, were a universal constant. She found herself walking towards her normal desk, but there was another girl sitting there already—about her height, but with russet hair and pigtails. Riana's heart began to thud. _What if…_

"Excuse me," she asked the girl. "What's your name?"

The girl looked quizzically at her. "What are you talking about, Kirishima? You know my name."

"Please. Just tell me."

The girl edged away a little, but answered, "Ichika. Ichika Fujimori."

"Right. Ichika. Sorry." Riana hesitated. "Look, I hate to sound stupid, but…er…where is my desk?"

Now Ichika was clearly measuring Riana for a straitjacket. "It's right over there. In front of Ikari."

"Thanks." Riana rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "Sorry. I fell the other day, and well, things are still pretty fuzzy."

The look on Ichika's face became one of penitent concern. "Oh, sorry, Kirishima. We heard you were in the hospital. You need any help?"

"No, no. I'm good." Riana turned and walked to her desk. _Whew. I don't know if I could've handled meeting myself. Then again, I suppose someone at the Lab would've told me._ She took her seat, smoothed her skirt, hitched it down an inch, and waited for the teacher to arrive.

* * *

She did—a few minutes late. The Kirishimas had prepared her for this, but seeing Misato Katsuragi out of uniform, as a teacher, was still every bit as surprising as seeing Toji alive. The breezy, familiar way she greeted everyone, and the way she casually threw her jacket into her chair—that was Misato to the life, no question. _But as a teacher?_ She had seen Misato go from her carefree, humorous persona to the cold, commanding Major Katsuragi, and Riana wondered if this Misato had the same dual personality.

"Hey, everyone!" Misato said after they had gone through the usual stand-and-bow routine, led by Hikari. "Almost forgot. Mana here took a header in the shower the other day and cracked her head open. She got a pretty bad concussion and she's suffering from amnesia—"

" _Partial_ amnesia," Riana corrected loudly.

"Right, partial amnesia. She might ask silly questions or act weird, but she's all right. Just be patient, okay?" She looked at a reddening Riana. "You feeling okay, Mana?"

"Fine," Riana said flatly. If there was a serious Major Katsuragi here, it was buried deep.

"Good. Let me know if you start having hallucinations or double vision or anything. Now, class, I really hope you did your homework—don't bother trying to put a smile on it, Suzuhara; I know you copied Horiaki's. Mana, you're excused as a result of being in the hospital. Anyways, turn to page 105…"

* * *

Unlike in her "old" classroom, Riana noticed, this class still used books rather than putting everything on a laptop. Also unlike her old teacher—Riana wondered if she'd ever remember his name, in any reality—Misato's lecture was actually interesting. It was on history and current events, but Riana listened in rapt fascination as Ms. Katsuragi the teacher described a history Riana did not know. From the looks on the other students' faces, this was old hat, though she didn't see anyone hauling out smartphones or counting the holes in the acoustical ceiling tile. Riana admitted to herself that Misato's talk about Japanese politics was not terribly interesting, but her observations on American history was. By the time the hour was up for history, Riana's mind whirled. _Second Impact never happened. The cities on the coasts are still intact. The President's not that General McChrystal guy, but this Barack Obama—well, he's not President for much longer, because America just had an election. The election is still in the fall, rather than having it in the spring after the first seeds are planted. And this Donald Trump sounds like a big deal, but I've never heard of him. And Hillary Clinton…wasn't she President Clinton's wife? She ended up running New York City relief efforts, I think._ She shook her head. _I don't belong in this world. It's too…normal!_ She smiled at that. _Then again, I could kind of get used to normal._

Math was no different, at least; either any skill Mana Kirishima had in mathematics did not transfer over, or Mana was just as terrible at it as Riana was. Japanese literature was interesting, and once again Riana marveled how kanji was as easy to read as English.

And then it was lunchtime. Mana apparently made her own bento lunches, but that morning Mrs. Kirishima had made it for her—Riana did not trust her culinary arts not to poison herself, and Jun Kirishima was not sending her daughter to school with something out of the microwave, or force her to buy something from the lunchroom. With the beginnings of a headache behind her eyes, Riana decided to get some fresh air, and headed for the roof.

It was not that much of a surprise to find Rei, Asuka and Hikari there.

"Hello, Kirishima-kun," Hikari said. "Feeling all right? You looked a little pale in there."

"I'm okay now. Mind if I eat lunch?"

"Sure," Hikari answered.

"If you must," Asuka said.

Rei said nothing and ate her bento.

 _And some things never change._ Riana took a seat next to Rei. Rei looked at her, then away quickly. That was different. Usually, the Rei Ayanami she knew could bore holes through people with a very uncomfortable stare. It was merely Rei giving someone her undivided attention, but it could be downright disconcerting. This Rei seemed almost shy.

"So," Asuka said, "Shinji told me you were taking a shower over at his parents' place, fell and hit your head. Did you fall or were you pushed?"

Riana had to chuckle at that. "Well, I wasn't showering with anyone, and as far as I know, no one pushed me. Why?"

"Just wondering if Shinji was anywhere near you."  
"Why would he be?"

Asuka stared at her for a moment, then smiled thinly. "Wow, you really _don't_ remember. I guess I should warn you, then." She put aside her bento. "Shinji Ikari tends to 'accidentally' fall. A lot. And when he does, his hands 'accidentally' find their way onto your boobs, your crotch, or your ass, and occasionally you lose articles of clothing in the process. Accidentally, of course."

Hikari giggled. "Asuka, really. I think Ikari-kun really doesn't mean to fall—he's rather clumsy—and he certainly doesn't mean to grab certain places."

"Mm. That's only because it's never happened to you, Hikari. Yet." Asuka returned her attention to Riana. "So you understand, I was wondering if Shinji should have 'accidentally' walked into the shower, 'accidentally' slipped on a bar of soap or something, and 'accidentally' grabbed something wet and intimate." Her eyes narrowed. "Or you _encouraged_ him to do so."

Riana's chopsticks stopped halfway to her mouth. "Why would I do that?"

Asuka rolled her eyes. "Okay, you expect me to believe you don't remember being attached to him like a lamprey most of the time?"

Riana popped the shrimp into her mouth. "No," she said between bites.

"You don't remember being interested in him?"

Riana realized what was going on. Asuka was staring intently at her, and though she was doing a heroic job trying to conceal it, so was Rei. _Holy crap,_ Riana thought, and bit her tongue so as not to laugh, _they're jealous of me. Has Mana been going after Shinji in this world? I wonder if it's genuine affection or if Mana's just trolling these two. I'm not an empath, but it doesn't take magic to realize what Asuka and Rei are looking for._ Riana let them stew a few moments longer, mainly because it was fun watching Asuka getting more and more agitated, and trying not to show it—which was normal—and watching Rei get more and more agitated, and trying not to show it—which was not. "Nope," she finally answered.

Asuka nodded, the relief apparent on her face. Rei let out a long breath, which she tried to conceal by doing it into her tea. "Good," Asuka said. "Keep it that way." Hikari shook her head; apparently this was nothing new to her.

"What else don't you remember?" Rei asked. The voice was the same, but it seemed shaky, almost—unsure, which Rei rarely was. Riana took in the pale skin, blue hair, and red eyes. _She looks so much the same,_ Riana thought, _and yet…she's different._

"A lot," Riana answered honestly. "I know who all of you are, but I don't remember anything about my life. I mean, my parents had to tell me who they were. It's pretty bad. I just remember snippets, here and there…Mom and Dad are hoping that coming to school will help me remember."

Rei stared at her bento, and Asuka, to Riana's surprise, turned away as well. "I'm…wow. I'm sorry to hear that, Mana," she said. "That…that sucks."

Riana shrugged and drank some tea. It tasted sour to her, but according to her parents, Mana liked tea, so she drank it. "Ah, it's all right. I'll get over it eventually. At least, that's what Dr. Soryu said."

It was a hook, and Asuka took the bait. "You saw Mama?" Asuka's face lit up, in an expression Riana had never seen on Asuka Langley-Soryu before. It completely changed her looks.

"She's sort of in charge of my rehab. Don't you see her?"

"Oh. Well, not much. She's busy, you know. But she's good," Asuka insisted.

Riana almost told them the real story, that she wasn't Mana Kirishima at all, but mentally stopped herself. It would do no good. They would just think she was crazy…and Riana might just agree with them. She was beginning to wonder which was the reality and which one was the dream.

The school clock chimed, and they wolfed their remaining bento to get back to class on time.


	4. Reach

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, it wasn't quite a month. Thanks for sticking with the story (hopefully). An old, new character arrives in this chapter._

 _First Municipal Junior High School_

 _Tokyo-3, Japan_

 _13 November 2016_

It was a duel. Nothing less. The stakes were high. And only one could win. Mana Kirishima—physically Mana, but actually Riana Arashikaze—stared across the room at Toji Suzuhara. For the second time in her life, the two stood against each other in mortal combat.

"Let's do this," Toji said with a sardonic smile.

"You feel froggy, jump," Riana answered, with the same smile.

Their hands came out from behind their backs at the same time. "Jyan, ken… _pon!"_ Misato shouted. Riana looked down at her hand. She'd failed.

Cheers erupted from half the class. "Suzuhara's group gets first pick." Misato pointed at the chalkboard. "Classroom, toilet, music room, or…" she paused for dramatic effect "…the bonus stage?"

"Do ya have ta ask?" Toji grinned. "Da bonus stage!"

 _Damn,_ Riana thought. _I really wanted to clean the music room with Shinji and the others. I don't know anyone else in this group._ She watched as Toji's half of the class was led away to whatever the bonus stage was, with Misato in the lead. The other half of the class—hers—trudged over to the music room.

* * *

Cleaning the school was something no student enjoyed doing, but it was a requirement, and certainly Riana saw the reasoning behind it. Luckily, cleaning the music room was not particularly difficult. A boy with curiously white hair took the lead, divided everyone up into tasks, and the work began. Riana found herself polishing the various musical instruments, which didn't take much; they were already rather clean. Once that was done, she began to put them neatly in a closet. Everything went smoothly until she got to the tuba. It wasn't heavy, but it was awkward.

"Here, let me help you with that." Riana saw it was the white-haired boy. Between them, they got the tuba to where it needed to go. He smiled at her and began to walk away, but she called after him, "Wait, what's your name?"

His expression became quizzical. "You know my…" Then he nodded. "Oh yes, that's right—your amnesia. My apologies. I'm Kaworu Nagisa."

"Hello, Nagisa-kun. I suppose we've met several times."

"Actually, no. I think we've only spoken once or twice." The smile returned. "Don't your parents work down at the lab with Ikari-kun's?"

"Yes." That was something she could answer at least. "My father's a bioengineer, and my mother is a brain surgeon." She shrugged. "Not sure how all that works at a lab dedicated to artificial evolution, whatever _that_ is, but that's what they do."

Kaworu scratched his chin. "Interesting. I've often wondered what, exactly, they do at that lab."

"I'd be interested myself, to be honest."

"Well, one of these days, we'll have to see what Shinji-kun knows. Compare notes." Riana noticed it was Shinji-kun now, which implied that Kaworu and Shinji were close friends. On closer inspection, she noticed that his eyes were a shade of red. _Ah, he's an albino! That explains the hair and pale skin. Like Rei. Maybe they're related?_ She was about to ask when Kaworu gave her a small bow. "Sorry to break this off, but I need to go find Miss Katsuragi and let her know how we're doing."

"Sure. Good to talk to you, Nagisa-kun."

Riana went back to cleaning as he left. A few minutes later, as she passed the music room's door, Hikari stuck her head in. "Oh, hello, Kirishima-kun. Have you seen Nagisa-kun?"

"He was just here…" Riana looked around and did not see him. "He said something about finding Misa—er, Katsuragi-sensei." If this Hikari was anything like her counterpart, titles and respect were something she cared about deeply; she would not like it if Riana showed overt familiarity with Misato.

"Hm. I just talked to Katsuragi-sensei." She shook her head. "Oh well. How's it going here?"

"I think we're pretty close to done. What about the bonus round?"

Hikari sighed. "Don't ask."

"Want some help?"

Hikari thought a moment, then shrugged. "Sure, why not? I could use a hand keeping Toji…er, ah, Suzuhara-kun in line." Riana laughed and followed Hikari down the hall. They headed towards a part of the school Riana had never been to before, in either universe. "This is the bonus round?" Riana asked.

"Yeah. It's a storage room. I think it's just Katsuragi-sensei using us a manual labor for all her accumulated junk."

"Sounds about right." At Hikari's look, Riana laughed again. "Come on, Hikari-kun. Some things you never forget."

Hikari chuckled, opened the door, and froze in shock. Over her shoulder, Riana saw Kensuke winding up to throw a baseball at Toji, who raised a broom as a bat. "Aida winds up for the pitch, and oh shit!" He noticed Hikari standing at the threshold. "Class rep! Class rep!" he shouted, warning the others. In actuality, everyone else was still working; only he and Toji were goofing off. He threw the ball towards Toji in a halfhearted pitch, but Hikari was already striding angrily towards Toji.

Toji ignored her. "Drop ball!" he shouted. "But Suzuhara maintains laser focus!"

"What the hell are you doing?" Hikari shouted.

The broom swept down and up…and missed the ball. He didn't miss Hikari's skirt, however, and the broom unerringly caught the hem and flung it upwards, revealing to the world that Hikari Horiaki preferred white cotton panties with pink bows on top. Both froze, thunderstruck with shock. Riana bit her bottom lip, hard enough to draw blood; it would do no good to burst out into laughter.

The ball, however, continued its journey. It bounced off the wall, ricocheted into the ceiling, and then cracked downwards to hit Shinji Ikari squarely in the back of the head. He went down like a poled ox, the papers he was carrying scattering to the four winds. Standing between Shinji and the ground was Riana, who hadn't noticed the boy's downward trajectory. As a result, both went to the floor with a thud. Riana's head bounced alarmingly off the threshold.

For a moment, all she saw was white, then realized she was staring at the ceiling. She shook her head, then looked down. _I'm still Mana,_ she thought woozily. _So much for that theory._ Shinji was lying atop her, his crotch digging into hers, one hand cupping her right breast. He also shook his head free of the cobwebs, stared at her for a moment, then jumped back as if she was a snake…though not before that hand had gotten even more of a feel.

Riana reacted without thinking. "What the hell, you asshole!" she shouted. "You grabbed my boobs!" She got to her feet, fists balled.

Shinji put his arms up defensively. "Wait, no! It wasn't intentional! You've got it all wrong!"

"You copped a feel!" Riana rubbed the back of her head. One part of her didn't necessarily _mind_ Shinji Ikari touching her, but this was not what she had in mind. Besides, it was Mana's breasts, not hers, technically. "Dammit, Shinji!"

"No, really, I'm sorry." Shinji backed off a few paces and nearly ran into Asuka, which would've been disastrous, as she was holding a full pail of water. She neatly sidestepped him, switched hands, and slapped Shinji in the back of the head. "Back to work, baka!" Asuka yelled. Shinji continued his retreat, muttering about how Toji managed to get him in trouble, again.

Asuka set the pail down and looked at Riana. "Well, well, Mana. I thought you liked Shinji grabbing you."

Riana reached over and tossed the other girl a dustrag. "Not like that, I don't. Does this happen often?"

"Frequently," Asuka sighed.

Riana watched Shinji go over to Rei, occasionally glancing at Riana and Asuka. He was obviously explaining himself, but Rei only threw him a wounded look and walked over to the pail. She knelt and wetted down another dustrag, then squeezed it out before returning to Shinji. Asuka watched her. "You really _don't_ remember," she said over her shoulder to Riana.

"No."

"I figured _that_ would've jogged your memory, if nothing else." Asuka rolled her eyes. "Just as well. Want to help me here?"

"Sure. I'll get the deck." Riana found a mop and began scrubbing the floor.

"The what?"

Riana realized Asuka didn't know what she meant. "Oh. The floor. Just something my grandmother used to say." Asuka went over to a wall to wipe it down, but behind her, Riana kicked herself inwardly. _Shut up!_ she commanded herself. _Don't slip like that. Asuka won't know the difference, but someone else might. You're Mana for now. Remember that._

She mopped diligently, only to be stopped by Asuka's sudden shrill voice. "What—what the hell are you yelling about?" Asuka yelled. "It's not like that between Shinji and I—I don't even _care—_ "

Hikari tried to wave her down. "Asuka-kun, I was whispering! You're the one who's yelling. And shaking," she added.

Shinji looked over from the windows, where he stood next to Rei. "Someone call me?"

"No!" Asuka shouted. "Not! Nothing!" She frantically looked everywhere but at Shinji. Her eyes alighted on the pail. "I'm going to dump this dirty water!" The water was not that dirty, but Riana skipped out of the way before Asuka ran her down; Asuka grabbed the pail and was out the door, muttering maledictions at Shinji, Hikari, and the world in general.

Hikari looked over at Riana and laughed. "That's just like Asuka." She stepped back and leaned against a bookcase filled with books.

Unknown to her, the bookcase was not stacked in any order or safely. Desperate to get done before the sun went down, Kensuke, Toji, and Ichika Fujimori had thrown the books haphazardly into the case, and it was unbalanced. When Hikari leaned against it, a few books fell, and then the entire thing tipped over, cascading books like a literary waterfall aimed at Hikari's head.

" _Look out!"_ Riana and Toji shouted at the same time. Toji was closer, and dashed towards Hikari, but he would not make it in time. Riana instinctively threw out a hand, though she was too far away to stop the bookshelf from falling.

And yet it stopped.

Everything stopped.

Riana's eyes rounded in pure shock. It had not _quite_ stopped. Books crawled off the shelves; Toji's foot landed on the floor so slowly that she could see the muscles in his ankles collapse. Hikari's mouth ovaled in a glacial gasp. Riana stood there for a moment, then moved. She let the mop fall; it stood vertical. She grabbed Hikari's hand and pulled her out of the way; Riana was careful not to jerk Hikari forward, which might break the other girl's wrist. Then she stepped back, still holding Hikari's hand, and blinked.

Time snapped back to normal. The bookshelf fell, but not all the way: Toji got under it and stopped the shelf, though a rather heavy math book bounced off his skull. Hikari finished her gasp of shock, and the mop clattered to the floor. With a grunt, Toji pushed the shelf back into place. "Ow," he remarked. "Dat hurt." He turned to Hikari. "You okay, class rep?" He put a hand on her shoulder.

Hikari turned red. "Yes…yes, I am. Thank you."

Toji grinned. "I think ya should be thanking Mana there. She sorta pulled you to safety." He rubbed his head. "Man, Mana, you moved so fast I don't think I even saw ya."

"Y-yeah," Riana stammered. "You too." She let go of Hikari's hand and moved away—not to give her and Toji space, but to figure out what had just happened. She stared at her hands. _I just used magic. I shouldn't be able to. I'm in Mana Kirishima's body, not mine! This isn't my world. This isn't my universe. How can I use magic?_ She glanced back at the shelf. _And I've never been able to just stop time like that. What the hell am I?_


	5. Mystic Rhythms

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: Much like tennis balls, life comes at you fast. I've been unable to write much lately-health issues, work issues, etc. But here's the next chapter. I'm going to try not to take two months before next update._

 _Artificial Evolution Lab_

 _13 November 2016_

The tennis ball bounced off of Riana Arashikaze's head. "Ow!"

Kyoko Soryu nimbly caught it off the rebound from the floor. "This isn't working," she sighed.

"Well, duh!" Riana shouted. "I don't have enough time to react if you're throwing them at my head from five feet away!" She massaged her temple. "That hurt…remember this isn't my skull you're trying to break, but Mana Kirishima's!"

Soryu placed the tennis ball on her desk. They were in the scientist's rather cluttered office. After school had ended for the day, Riana had made a quick call back to the Kirishima residence and come to the lab. Soryu had been the first one she had found, lying asleep in a staff lounge. After Riana woke her up, the excited doctor had dragged her to her office, deep underground. Since then, she had been trying to bounce objects off Riana's head. "Well," Soryu retorted, "I really don't know how else to trigger this power of yours."

Riana sagged into a chair. "I know," she said after awhile. "I just didn't know who else to turn to." She stared at her hands for the tenth time that afternoon. "That I could do this—back where I come from—that I would get. It would make sense. But to be able to do this in _this_ body…"

Soryu also took a seat, in her well-upholstered chair. "That actually makes quite a bit of sense to me."

"Maybe you could explain it then," Riana snapped. Soryu was being maddeningly vague. _Maybe this is why Asuka is always so bitchy, no matter what universe she's in._

"Of course." Soryu took a deep breath.

"Short version," Riana said.

Soryu closed her mouth, gave Riana a dirty look, and continued. "Very well then. Short version. Have you ever thrown a rock into a pond?"

"Sure."

"What happens?"

"Ripples. I assume that was what you were going for."

"Right!" Soryu said happily, as to a good student. "A rock into a pond has been a long-standing tradition of explaining how choices affect everything around us. I make a decision—" she picked up the tennis ball "—and execute it." She tossed it at the wall, where it bounced back for her to catch it. "But let's say something else happened." Soryu then tossed the tennis ball out of her open office door into the dim corridor beyond. "Then something has changed. Now let's say that tennis ball hit Director Ikari, who slipped, fell and tore off his wife's skirt in the process. Then she slaps him enough to cause a concussion, and he is taken to the hospital, which is then leveled in an earthquake." Soryu laughed, though Riana suspected at least part of her scenario had probably happened.

"So like the Butterfly Effect?" Riana asked. She remembered seeing that somewhere.

"Hmm…no, more like the old story 'For Want of a Nail.' Are you familiar with it?"

Riana was. "For want of a nail, the kingdom fell. Sure."

"Exactly. Had the horseshoe not needed a nail, the battle would have been won and the kingdom saved."

"I understand that, but how does it affect me?"

"What if the rock fell into the water…and didn't produce any ripples?" Soryu thought about it for a moment. "The analogy doesn't quite work, I'm afraid. Let me explain it better: what if you exist outside time itself, Riana?"

Riana thought about it for a minute. "You lost me."

"All right," Soryu sighed. "I admit it flies in the face of all the science I know, but that doesn't matter."

"It doesn't?"

The scientist smiled. "Riana, two hundred years ago, the things we take for granted today would be considered witchcraft. 70 years ago, it would be science fiction. Here at the lab, we've mapped the human genome. We can…" Her voice trailed off and Soryu looked down. "Well, I guess I can't talk about _everything_ we do here.

"But trust me, what right now seems like magic might actually be the next step in human evolution."

Riana stood up and hugged herself. She'd heard that before—from Ritsuko Akagi, in her universe. "Me? What's so special about me?"

Soryu shrugged. "Who knows? What was so special about the first human who decided to stand up straight? What was so special about the first human who decided they could grow things that came out of the ground? All that matters is that they _did_ do those things. Mother Nature is a strange beast, Riana. Just about the time we think we've got it all figured out, she throws us a curve ball."

Riana wasn't sure she liked where the conversation was going. A note of scientific curiosity crept into Soryu's voice, and Riana wondered if she wasn't about to end up being dissected. "So I'm a magical girl. Like Sailor Moon."

Soryu laughed. "I loved that show when I was young… _younger,_ " she corrected herself. "But perhaps."

"Except I can't control this power."

"No? Neither could Usagi, as I recall. Not at first. It takes time, Riana. And training. Something you were getting in your world, yes?"

"Yeah." Riana turned away from the scientist, and leaned her head against the wall. "In the meantime, I'm stuck in Mana Kirishima's body. And Mana's God knows where."

Soryu nodded. "To expand upon my theory, Riana, your consciousness—your soul, if you like—was forced into Mana's body. There's a connection between the two of you. You've told me she doesn't exist in your world, and you, apparently, don't exist here. It could be that, in your universe, you _are_ Mana Kirishima, and here, she is Riana Arashikaze." She tapped her desk. "Just like the ripples in the pond. In your world, your grandparents met and conceived your father—but in this world, they never met, or they met differently, and conceived either Mana's father or Mana's mother. Or it goes back further than that. Who knows? It could be that you've merely swapped bodies, and in your universe, there is a very confused Mana Kirishima."

"I feel sorry for her." Riana turned back to face Soryu. "So how do we swap back? I like this world, but that's not fair to Mana. She shouldn't be sentenced to live in mine."

Soryu looked away, toyed with a strand of her hair. "I don't know yet. I'm working on it, but I _do_ have other projects here at the lab. Unfortunately, I can't devote everything to your…problem." She shrugged again. "In the meantime, try to relax. Get some sleep. Nothing good ever came out of not getting any sleep."

Even on short acquaintance, Riana knew that Kyoko Soryu liked her rest. She'd overheard Mrs. Kirishima say that Soryu had slept through her thesis presentation, and still got an A. She glanced at the door. "Okay. I guess I don't have a hell of a lot of—"

The tennis ball sailed straight at her face. By pure instinct, Riana threw a hand up to stop it from hitting her in the face.

The tennis ball stopped in midair. Just for a moment—barely three heartbeats—but it stopped. It was enough for Riana to catch the ball rather than be hit by it.

Riana looked at Soryu, whose mouth had fallen open and whose eyes were huge. Then she looked at Asuka, who stood in the doorway. Asuka gave her the smile that, in any universe, was irritating. "You just have to know how to throw it, Mama."


	6. Knowing Me, Knowing You

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow, it's been awhile. I've been trying to juggle a new job, school, and trying to write three stories at once. But, anyway, here's the new update. Don't know if I can update regularly from now on, and won't make any promises. But this scene was a big hurdle to overcome._

 _Artificial Evolution Lab_

 _13 November 2016_

Asuka asked—basically commanded—Riana to follow her to the lab's bath. From experience, of course, Riana knew the Japanese took pride in their baths, but even by Japanese standards, the women's bath was heroic. It looked like a resort.

Both of them stripped out of their clothes, sat on stools, and washed their bodies down. Neither girl said anything. Riana tried very hard not to be embarrassed; while same-sex communal bathing was very common in Japan, other than showering with Asuka and Rei at NERV, she had never tried it. Even then, she usually waited until the other girls were out of the shower. Mana, of course, would have no issues with that sort of thing, but Riana did, very much so. As far as keeping her identity secret, Riana already knew Asuka had heard everything. She had admitted as such to her mother.

Once they had washed off, they entered the bath. "Damn!" Riana exclaimed, and nearly leapt out of the bath. It was very hot. Another cultural thing she did not share with the Japanese.

"This isn't _that_ hot," Asuka said, the first words she had spoken since they had left Dr. Soryu's office.

"Hot enough." Riana eased into the water, noticing with mild alarm how red her skin was getting.

"You think this is bad, never bathe with my mama," Asuka told her. "She likes her bath the same temperature as magma."

Finally Riana got in and sat on the built in step. The water reached her chest. She and Asuka sat across from the bath from each other.

"So," Asuka began, "you're not really Mana Kirishima."

"In a matter of speaking." Riana shook her head. "Please, Soryu-kun, you can't tell anyone—"

"I won't. Nobody would believe me anyway. I'm not even sure _I_ believe it, but actually it makes sense. You've been acting kind of not-weird lately, Mana—ah, Riana. It's been kind of nice." She smiled thinly. "And you can drop the 'kun,' Man—Riana." Asuka laughed. "That's going to take getting used to. Anyway, as an American, I'm sure you're not used to the honorific system."

"I've been living in Japan now for several months," Riana shot back, then it hit her. "How do you know that I'm not Japanese?"

"Riana's not exactly a Japanese name."

"Oh."

There was a long pause. Riana could not meet Asuka's eyes, who were fixated on her, as if Asuka was trying to see into her head. "So…assuming Mama's not gone out of her mind, more so than usual, who is Riana Arashikaze and where does she come from?"

Riana did not want to tell Asuka everything. Even in her own universe, Asuka wasn't exactly a Chatty Cathy, but it still didn't seem advisable. "Well…basically…I had a very traumatic event where…where I come from. And I woke up here, in Mana's body."

Asuka leaned back comfortably on the side of the bath. "At least you didn't wake up in mine. Yet you knew all of us?"

"In my world, all of you are there."

Asuka smiled. "Me too?"

"Yes." Riana tried to hide the look of disgust on her face—Mana's face—but evidently failed, since Asuka's smile got wider.

"So what am I like back there? Still awesome? More awesome?"

Riana suddenly was tired of playing the game. "You're a cast-iron bitch."

The venom in her voice caused Asuka's eyes to widen. "Don't spare my feelings, Riana, say what you really mean." When Riana said nothing in reply, Asuka's features softened a little. "That bad, huh? How am I a bitch?"

"For one thing, you abuse Shinji."

Asuka chuckled. "I abuse Shinji here, in case you haven't noticed. 'Course, he deserves it, because he's a hentai."

"No, it's different." Riana sank a little further in the bath. This was most definitely the strangest conversation she had ever had—talking to someone about themselves, and yet not themselves. "Here, you tease Shinji, and yeah, you hit him. But you don't _hate_ him. You give him hell, but you don't bully him."

Now it was Asuka's turn to look sheepish. "Well, no. I don't hate Shinji. I mean, we grew up together. I've known him since we were six, at least."

"In my world, you didn't meet until you were fourteen." That was a guess on Riana's part, but she was sure that if Asuka and Shinji knew each other where she came from, she would've heard about it by now.

"That would be weird. I've always known Shinji." Asuka looked back to her. "What about Rei?"

"Rei's much different. She rarely speaks. She doesn't really have emotions. Well, she does, but they're pretty, um, muted. Rei here doesn't seem to wear her emotions on her sleeve, but she's nothing like the Rei where I come from."

"And her and…Shinji?" Once more, Asuka looked away. Riana smiled, because _this_ Asuka did wear her emotions on her sleeve.

"She and Shinji are just friends." _I think,_ Riana added to herself. "But Shinji's not really close to anyone where I come from, Asuka. Not Rei, not you, not even me. He's afraid to be, I think. He's lost a lot."

Asuka nodded. "Is his dad the same way? An overprotective klutz?"

"No. Director Ikari is nothing like he is here. He's…" Riana searched for the right word. Gendo Ikari wasn't really evil in her opinion; that was too strong of a word. He was tough, maybe even cruel, certainly enigmatic. But Riana could not bring herself to call him evil. "He's driven. He's hard to work for. He doesn't care about Shinji—or at least doesn't seem to. Maybe he does, but he doesn't show it." She did not want to mention when Shinji and Gendo had almost come to blows.

"That's _definitely_ not like Mr. Ikari here. And Yui puts up with that?"

"Yui's dead in my world."

Asuka turned pale and could not meet Riana's eyes. "And…Mama? My mom?"

Riana swallowed. "Kyoko Soryu is also dead. I don't know the details, but…but she died when Asuka, that Asuka, was very young." Riana had heard rumors. Half-whispered ones, between the other girls when Asuka wasn't present, that Kyoko had killed herself.

Asuka shuddered, even in the heat of the bath. "Good God. Mama. I can't imagine not having her…it would be…" There was a long silence, then she glanced up at Riana. "What am I—what's Asuka like to you?"

"We got into a fistfight once. I don't hate you—hate that Asuka. Actually, I respect you a lot. You're a good…" Riana hesitated. Again, she was not sure what to say, what was secret. Was the Evolution Lab working on an Eva far below where they were? She knew NERV had started off as a similar project. Was history repeating itself here? "You're good at what we do. But you're driven too. Very ambitious. You want to be the best. It's like you've got something to prove." Riana was surprised how easy it was to think of this Asuka as the Asuka she knew, even though they were actually different people, in so many ways.

"A fistfight?" Asuka could not help but smile. "Who won?"

Riana was tempted to say that she had, but that wouldn't be fair. "Honors were about even, I'm afraid. We both were bleeding when it was over."

"Huh. So what exactly do we do, back there?"

Riana searched for the right word that wouldn't give too much away. "We're soldiers. There's a war."

"Soldiers? Hmm. Never really gave a military career some thought, though it's tempting." Riana couldn't be sure if Asuka was serious or not. "So we're older, then. Am I good looking? I don't have any bad scars or anything?" She held a hand over her right eye. "I bet I have a badass eyepatch."

Riana realized Asuka was trying for levity. The news that her mother was dead in another universe had actually shaken her. "You look about the same. Actually, we're exactly the same age there as we are here."

Asuka opened her mouth to reply, then shut it as the implications sank in. They were child soldiers. _Yes,_ Riana wanted to say, _it's that desperate._ She hoped Asuka would not press her for details.

"All of us?" Asuka finally asked. "Shinji, Rei, Toji, Kensuke, Hikari?"

"Not Kensuke or Hikari. Toji's dead. He was killed." Riana made herself not show any expression at that.

"Shit," Asuka breathed at length. "And you want to go _back?_ I mean, we got wars going on here too, but Japan's not involved, and I don't think there's teenagers involved. At least not with the Americans."

"It's where I belong. I mean, what if I did switch bodies with Mana? I don't know how you feel about Mana, but she doesn't deserve that. She deserves to be here, with her family."

"Yeah? What about your family?" Asuka asked.

"I don't have one. Both my parents are gone. My only living relative is my grandmother. She's a soldier too."

"Fuck." The word was in English, and was said in amazement. "I can't believe this is happening. This conversation. This is some weird shit."

"You should see it from my end," Riana sighed.

"Yeah, I'll bet." Asuka levered herself out of the bath. "Well, my lips are sealed. No one would believe me anyway." She sat on the stool and began lathering herself in soap. Riana did the same. The water had been nice, but the heat was starting to make her a little dizzy. _I don't need to fall down in here and crack my head. Though maybe that would send me back. Maybe it's the suds that does it._ She smiled at that one, and at the thought that it was actually tempting to try it. "So what do you look like back there? Trying to get a mental picture here."

"Oh. Well, I'm fourteen, same as you, a few inches—er, centimeters—taller, my hair's about the same length as yours, though it's a darker brown. I have green eyes, and I'm kinda skinny. Mana and I have about the same build, actually." Riana could not help herself. "Except in the chest. My boobs are bigger. _Much_ bigger. Matter of fact, I've got the biggest rack in Class 2-A." That last was for pure devilment, just to see if this Asuka was as sensitive to that fact as the one back in her time.

Asuka's face did darken a bit. She glanced down at her chest. "That figures." She finished soaping up and rinsed off with a basin of water. As Riana filled her basin, Asuka said, "Hey."

"Yes?"

"On behalf of Asukas everywhere…" She shrugged, self-consciously. "I'm sorry I'm such a bitch back in the other world."

"Not your fault."

"Not _hers,_ either. If I lost my mother, I think I'd go a little crazy too. You say this Asuka wants to be the best? It's because that's all she's got left, Riana. No mama, no papa, no one. I'd have no one but me. And I'd probably hate everyone who wasn't as alone." She shrugged again as Riana rinsed off. "I think I know this Asuka a little."

Riana didn't know what to say to that, so she said nothing while they got dressed again. As they left the bath, Asuka asked her, "So what about your parents here? Riana's, not Mana's."

"There isn't any Arashikazes that the lab could find."

"Yeah? You're American. It wouldn't be Arashikaze, right? It would be the translation—Tornado or Stormwind or something."

"It's my grandfather's name, he was Japanese-American…" Riana's voice trailed off. _My God, why didn't I think of that? Grandmother told me that Grandfather changed the name back—my great-grandparents Anglicized their name after World War II, after the internments. Grandfather changed it back._ "We need to go talk to your mother again."

Asuka grinned. "If she's awake. But don't worry, Riana. Once my mother gets hold of something, she never lets go." She pointed to herself. "I get it from her, you see."


	7. That Was Yesterday

_AUTHOR'S NOTES: Not dead yet. Been on vacation, and a lot of life changes, and a lot of writer's block. Still, this was another hurdle cleared, and I know where I want to go after this._

 _Tokyo Express Shinkansen_

 _15 November 2016_

Riding a bullet train was something that Riana had always wanted to try. They still existed in the Japan of her world, but there had been no time or reason to ride one. She stared out of the window, watching the forests, mountains and coastline hurtle by, with only the hiss of the wheels. She _had_ rode the train in her America, and it was noisy and a bit dirty; this one was clean and quiet.

Or would have been, had it not been for Asuka. To look out the window, Riana had to look past Shinji, and she got the impression that Asuka thought she was staring at Shinji. Asuka had been more kind, even friendly to Riana after their chat in the bath, but was still very proprietary towards Shinji.

Sitting across the aisle from Riana was Yui Ikari, who looked more relaxed and casual away from the lab. She also stared out the window. "Nice weather. You'd think we were going on a picnic."

"It is nice outside," Asuka agreed. "Just one thing bothers me."

"And what's that, Asuka-chan?"

"Why is _she_ coming along?" Asuka leveled a finger at Riana, who jumped a little in surprise.

"Ikari-sama said it was all right!" Riana shot back.

"I got to talking with Mana's parents," Yui said soothingly, "Well, I told them about this little trip we were taking, and we thought it would be good to get Mana out of the house too." It was the truth. Since Riana had "arrived," her life had been nothing more than school and lab. Mana's parents thought she needed a little vacation, even if it was just a day trip to Old Tokyo and back.

 _Old Tokyo,_ Riana mused to herself as Yui advised Asuka to be nice. In her time, "old" Tokyo was a shattered ruin, destroyed by a nuclear bomb detonated a week after Second Impact. No one knew who had detonated the bomb or why. What could be salvaged was used to create Tokyo-2, thirty miles inland. Here, Tokyo-2 and Tokyo-3 were research cities; Old Tokyo was still very much intact, though dealing with a population drawn to the more modern Tokyos. She'd heard Asuka refer to Old Tokyo as "boring."

"Oh, Mom," Shinji asked, mainly to change the subject, "this industrial, chemical…um, thing place…what do they do there, anyway?"

"Well," Yui answered, "it's a specialized program, and I really can't go into too much detail here on the train. But it's kind of a parallel project to what we're working on at the Artificial Evolution Research Facility."

"Parallel project?" This from Rei, who sat uncomfortably next to Asuka and across from Shinji. Rei had been looking out the window as well for most of the trip, which brought back some memories for Riana.

"I think they sort of regard us as rivals," Yui said. "And I'm sure the reason they invited us today is to show off whatever it is they _think_ they've been doing." Yui's smile grew predatory. "Heh. We'll see. This should be… _interesting_." She chuckled, low and in the back of her throat, unnaturally.

Rei swallowed. "Auntie, you're acting a little scary."

Shinji nodded. "Yes, you are, Mom."

Yui said nothing in reply, just kept grinning out the window. Riana involuntarily leaned closer to Shinji. There was something Gendo-like in Yui's eyes, and not in the friendly, bumbling Gendo way of this world.

"Um, Kirishima-san…" Shinji said. "You're leaning a little close." Riana's—or rather, Mana's—right breast was against Shinji's arm, and the blush spread across Shinji's face like a rash. Frantically looking for an out, Riana pointed out the window. "Er, Shinji, look! The beach!"

Asuka's face darkened in rage. "Shinji, look!" she repeated. "The bitch!"

* * *

If this was all of Old Tokyo that they would get to see, Riana was in agreement with Asuka—it was boring. This part of the city was industrial, with soulless buildings of concrete and glass, and vast expanses of asphalt. Riana glanced around as they entered one of the buildings, and noted with a jolt that she was rather close to where, in her world, she and the other pilots had fought EVA-03, and Toji Suzahara had died. She hoped that wasn't a bad omen.

"Welcome!" The man that approached them was fairly nondescript: dressed in a well-cut suit with an almost standard haircut, he could be one of a thousand Japanese businessmen. "Welcome to Japan Heavy Chemical Industrial Cooperative." He nodded at the four students. "I am Director Shiro Tokita." They exchanged bows. "Having the esteemed Dr. Ikari come to our facility is an amazing honor."

"Oh, that's too nice," Yui replied. "I was looking forward to visiting today." She looked around at the high ceiling and glass. "Besides, it's only been, what, a year ince you first started going here, hasn't it? To have something to show off is impressive, this early in the game."

There was just the hint of condescension in her voice, and Tokita picked up on it. "Yes," he replied, his smile tightening, "I suppose we deserve some credit. I mean, imagine if we were one of those labs that do nothing but vague research, absurd tests, farcical experiments that never seem to lead to anything."

Riana winced. Yui's smile disappeared like snow before a heat wave; that barb had hit home. "But objectively," she snarled, "there are different ways and approaches to research, so it's hard to pigeonhole them. There's really no one right way to pursue knowledge."

Tokita stayed on the offensive. "That's true. You can go pretty far until people run out of patience…not to mention money."

Asuka leaned over to the other three as they walked behind the two scientists. "What's going on between those two?"

"According to what I heard," Rei whispered back, "Director Tokita was in the same year as Auntie Yui when they were at university. In every course, he always came in second to her."

Asuka nodded. "Yeah, I can see how that would be aggravating. Coming in second all the time." There was just a hint of a smirk in Asuka's voice, and Rei picked up on it. She stared daggers across Shinji at _her_ rival.

Tokita was still needling Yui. "You know how it is, Dr. Ikari. In this business, results are everything."

Yui smiled at him, and Riana understood the old Japanese saying of hiding a sword in a smile. "Yes, let's see these 'results,' if you don't mind. I'm sure it would be very… _educational_ …for the kids here as well."

Tokita was not ruffled. They went down an escalator and came to a large steel door. "Then this is your lucky day, esteemed guests. You're the first people from outside the firm to view what I'm about to show you." The doors rumbled open into the second largest chamber Riana had ever seen, and it was all Riana could do to stifle a scream. It turned into a gasp, but she was not alone in that.

* * *

It was an Evangelion. _No,_ Riana corrected herself, _not quite._ It was as big as one, maybe even larger than EVA-01, and had the same proportions, even the same gangly arms and armor plate design. The torso was more barrel-chested and the back stuck out far more. There was no head to speak of, just a projection that might be a cockpit atop the chest. _What the hell is that doing here? There's no Angels in this world! Why build such a thing?_ On closer inspection, it looked vaguely familiar.

"It's a giant robot." Shinji was good at pointing out the obvious, no matter what world he was in.

Tokita folded his arms across the chest, and his smirk was very obvious. "Well, Dr. Ikari? What do you say to that?" He gestured at the huge robot. "You see before you the culmination of the scientific efforts of this facility, this company—no," he corrected himself, "this nation as a whole!"

"What's it called?" Shinji asked.

"It's codename is JA," Tokita said, "but you can call it Jet Alone."

 _Jet Alone? I know that name. C'mon, Riana, where have you heard that? It was right before I came to Tokyo-3…_ Riana thought hard, but the knowledge was just beyond her mind's reach.

"Can it even move?" Asuka asked.

Tokita coughed nervously. "Well. I admit it has been a little difficult." He stopped before he revealed something he shouldn't. "Currently, we're about at 80% complete. Next month it becomes operational. Now," he said, turning to Yui, "your assessment, Dr. Ikari?"

"It certainly does look amazing," she admitted. "I suppose any problems are on the inside." It was not a question, and Tokita scowled. "I imagine moving something this gigantic is going to require quite a a large amount of energy, yes? I mean, according to rumors…" Yui threw Tokita a smug glance, to let him know Jet Alone was not as secret as he thought. "According to rumors, it would have to be powered by a—"

"Nuclear reactor?" Tokita finished. "Yes, we have one installed. With all standard safety precautions, of course. Perhaps you'd like to go to the control room, take a closer look? We're testing the engine powerup procedure today."

"You sure it's all right?"

"Certainly. As I said, you see before you the most advanced technology in Japan—no, the world. To have you there, Dr. Ikari, when we test Jet Alone's engine at full power for the first time, would be a great honor. Maybe you can learn something—"

" _Don't turn it on!"_

Riana's shout stopped everyone in their tracks and echoed around the huge chamber. Crews below them on catwalks stared upwards. Tokita turned to Riana. "Excuse me, young lady?"

Riana wanted to shrink back behind Shinji, Asuka or Rei, or all three at once. She summoned up her courage and stood her ground. It was not going to happen again. "Don't turn that robot on, Director Tokita."

Tokita laughed. "Really, young miss, there's nothing to be afraid of. I understand the sensitivity towards using nuclear power, but I would think your generation would not have those fears! Japan has been using nuclear power for generations—we learned a lot since Fukushima, and even so, that was caused by an earthquake. Truly there's nothing to worry about—"

Riana shook her head vehemently. "No, just...please don't."

Even Yui looked taken aback. "Mana, as much as it pains me to agree with Director Tokita, he's right. Fission power is safe, assuming he's taken the correct safeguards—"

"—which we have," Tokita interrupted.

 _Not again!_ Riana screamed inwardly. The sudden fear, the knowledge that something was desperately wrong, the same inability to get her point across—everything that had led to Toji's death in EVA-03, the death she could have, should have prevented. She clenched her fists. "Yui-sama, I need to talk to you. Alone. _Now."_

Yui looked about ready to tell Riana to be quiet, but the note of desperation in the girl's voice stopped her. "Shinji, Rei, Asuka…why don't you go on ahead with Director Tokita? We'll be down directly, as soon as I've dealt with Mana's little tantrum here." Tokita shrugged and motioned them down another stairwell. Rei and Asuka followed with concerned glances over their shoulders; Shinji hesitated a moment before following.

* * *

Yui took Riana through the steel doors to the landing. "What is going on with you?" she snapped at Riana, in English. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I _have._ Please, Dr. Ikari, you can't let them turn that damn thing on."

"Man—Riana. I don't have a lot of confidence in anything Tokita's responsible for building, but this is going to extremes. What will happen?"

"The engine will melt down. It will go critical." Riana tried to remember everything about Jet Alone that she had overheard in briefings and conversations at NERV. Shinji had mentioned something once about Misato almost dying in Jet Alone trying to stop a meltdown, and Ritsuko had remarked in passing that the fusion reactor that powered EVA-03A was far safer than the fission one that powered Jet Alone. At the disbelief on Yui's face, Riana resisted the temptation to stomp her feet in frustration. "Dr. Ikari, you have to believe me. In my world—the time I come from—we had a Jet Alone there, too! The Japanese government developed it as a rival to the Evangelions, the mecha that Gendo—that your husband develops where I come from. The first time they switched the damn thing on, it went critical, I don't know how, but it was going to explode! They only barely shut it down, and Misato had to go inside it and do something to shut it off, I don't know—"

"Misato? Misato Katsuragi?" Yui rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't trust Misato to shut off a toaster."

Riana, driven to beyond frustration, grabbed Yui by the front of her business suit. "For the love of God, Dr. Ikari! I know it sounds crazy, but you _have_ _to believe me!"_ _Please, God,_ Riana prayed, _don't let this happen again! You gave me this gift, why won't anyone let me use it?_

Yui pushed Riana away, but gently. She paused for a moment. "All right. I don't know if I can convince Tokita, but I'll try. Come on." She reentered the chamber and quickly moved down the stairwell. Riana, with a terrified glance at Jet Alone, followed.

* * *

They reached the control room, where Tokita was proudly showing off the impressive rows of computers, bragging about how well protected the room was and how one person, if necessary, could control Jet Alone. He turned to Yui and Riana when they walked through the door. "Glad you could join us, Doctor. Is everything all right?"

"It's fine," Yui said. "Could you run a diagnostic on the reactor?" She ruffled Riana's hair. "Seems Miss Kirishima here has nightmares about nuclear meltdowns—she did a school project on Chernobyl, you see."

"She did?" Asuka asked. "When was—"

"Yes," Yui snapped, and Asuka instantly shut her mouth. She put on a wide smile when she returned her attention to Tokita. "It's just to reassure her, Shiro-sama. And me. We don't deal with nuclear power at the Artificial Evolution Lab, you see."

It was the right thing to say: the right amount of charm, just the hint of deference, the right stroking of ego, and a bit of revealing a little about her own secret research. Tokita gave Riana a strange look, shrugged again, and turned to the computer. "Well, certainly. I can tell you that it's perfectly safe, Kirishima-chan. Chernobyl was a flawed reactor, run by morons, at the behest of a repressive government that had no idea what it was working with." Riana nodded, without the slightest clue what Chernobyl was.

Tokita continued to chatter on, but his prattling suddenly stopped. "That's odd."

"What is?" Yui asked.

He was so absorbed in his work that he did not bother with secrecy. "We had to make a change to the system architecture the other day, at the request of the government. I was against it, but I was overruled. We haven't had time to debug the changes. This doesn't look quite right, but I'm sure it's well within parameters-"

"Shiro." He nearly whirled on Yui, as she dropped all titles and honorifics. "Run the debugging program."

"Dr. Ikari—"

"Do it!" she ordered, in the same tone Riana was sure she used at the Lab, and with Gendo. "It won't take but a few minutes, right?" Her tone softened a little. "We _are_ talking about a nuclear reactor here."

Tokita's eyes flashed angrily, but after a moment's hesitation, he turned back to the computer. "Fine. Just to shut you up."

* * *

They waited in the control room for almost twenty minutes, and the tension rose with every one of them. Shinji and Rei kept looking at Riana with mystification. To Riana's surprise, Asuka's expression was one of genuine concern, directed at her. Yui merely looked pensive.

"Holy shit." Tokita's words made them all jump.

"What?" Yui said.

"There were lines of code inserted. If we had powered up Jet Alone…" Tokita audibly swallowed. "If we had powered up Jet Alone, the control rods would've withdrawn from the reactor. The core temperature would've rose exponentially in seconds, and…holy shit." He didn't have to finish the sentence. All of them knew enough about nuclear reactors to know he was talking about a catastrophic meltdown.

"Chernobyl," Riana said into the silence.

"Chernobyl," Yui nodded. "But worse, I imagine."

Tokita was shaking his head. "It doesn't make any sense. Someone _did_ this, someone did this to Jet Alone."

"Sabotage?" Shinji said the word they were all thinking.

Yui stepped back. "Children, let's leave Director Tokita to his task. It sounds like he has a lot of work to do. Shiro-san, if you need any help, you have my number." Yui couldn't resist one last shot, cheap though it might be. Tokita, still numbed, just nodded as they walked out.

As they left the building, Rei nudged Riana. "Kirishima-kun. How did you know?"

"Er…I didn't," Riana stammered. "It…just a lucky guess. I really am scared of nuclear reactors." She turned away from Rei, and ended up facing Asuka. The redhead just smiled and waggled her eyebrows.

* * *

The shinkansen roared back towards Tokyo-3 against a magnificent backdrop of Mount Fuji and a sunset. Riana stood by herself in the lounge car, her hands clasped in front of her waist, almost in prayer.

"You probably saved our lives today." Riana saw Yui come up behind her in the reflection of the window.

"About time I did something right," Riana answered.

"Don't be so hard on yourself." Yui shook her head. "Your world, that you come from…it must be so terrible."

"It is."

"And yet you want to return."

Riana turned to her and leaned against the window. "Dr. Ikari, this is Mana's body and Mana's world. Like I told Dr. Akagi, I don't belong here. Mana does. I'm just glad I was able to finally do some good, for once. Back there, it's…I don't know," Riana finished. _I can't tell her,_ she told herself. _I can't tell her that there's only one group that could've sabotaged Jet Alone back in my world, and that would be NERV. Gendo Ikari would've never allowed any rival to the Evangelions. But he wouldn't have done it here. The Ikaris aren't responsible—Yui looked genuinely surprised when I told her, and the Gendo of this world is not the fanatic of mine. But_ someone _sabotaged this Jet Alone too. Who could it be?_

Yui put an arm around Riana's shoulders. "I wish I could go to your world. Maybe Tokita's right and our experiments here don't make a lot of sense, but I think I could do some good there myself."

"You could. But there's just no way. We don't even know if I can get back."

Yui smiled. "We don't, true, but we might know someone who might." She held up her phone. "Riana, Kyoko found her. Dr. Akagi found your grandmother, and she's very much alive."


End file.
